oil and water
by icclenomi
Summary: two perspectives of the relationship between the Sully twins pre-avatar.


two perspectives of another possible dynamic between the sully twins pre-avatar. I look forwards to hearing people's thoughts.

JAKE

It was simple. They were different, like oil and water- they might look the same sometimes, but they just didn't mix well. Tommy was all about the science thing and Jake, well... he didn't really get it. Tommy was always going on about how good science could save the earth for their, I don't know, grandkids or whatever- but Jake saw the importance of keping their country safe in the here and now.

They had always been different. As kids, you couldn't shut Tommy up- he would talk a mile a minute about things that no one really cared about, something about plants somewhere on Pandora- Jake didn't really speak much at all, he just put his head down and got on with it. Then, somewhere between the eigth grade and the ninth, it was as if someone had swapped their magazines. Tommy became the quiet one. If Jake had to guess why, it'd probably be that the vultures, otherwise known as jocks, descended and Tommy realised that he didn't want to draw attention to himself. Jake though, Jake got himself fit. He joined a lot of clubs, like boxing and track- and he learned to run his mouth; being 'identical' to one of the school's biggest nerds led to lots of confrontations. After school ended, they grew even further away, neither wanted to be defined as a part of a pair. Jake joined up, and Tommy did his science thing. All Jake knew was that no one ever compared him to anyone, no one told him he didnt measure up. He was able to earn respect and develop on his own to find out exactly what he was capable of.

But none of it mattered after he got hit. When he woke up, the only person he wanted was his brother. He couldn't face his comrades, many of them had been lost, and those that remained had only ever seen him as the strong Corporal Sully- he couldn't let them see how feeble he had been rendered. And his parents... he didn't want to see that mixture of 'I told you so' and sympathy that he knew they would try to hide from him. His brother, though; Tommy never saw him as anything but Jake. Tommy didn't care if he cried, it didn't matter if he screamed, or lost all control, because even when they were complete strangers- they knew each other better than anyone else in the world. Tommy never told him what he couldn't do, not like the medical doctors, he let him figure it out for himself. He knew it was enough that he was present, and that he interacted with him as he always had. Oh, they argued- they kinda enjoyed it. they would bicker about all sorts of stupid things- which sport was better, which games, which books- it didn't really matter, but it helped a great deal for Jake to have that one person who didn't just go along with everything he said. His brother helped him get back on his metaphorical horse and face the world again.

By the time Tommy was scheduled to leave Earth for the forseeable future, Jake had tried to find a stable job- but everything he had ever been good at involved a certain level of physicality. He had asked around every garage in the city, every metal works and carpenter's shop- but in these unstable times, no one wanted to risk hiring a crippled verteran. There was something Jake noticed- everyone focussed on what he couldn't do, instead of letting him show them what he could do. Assholes, the lot of them. But when Tommy got hit... Jake took a look at everything and made a decision. Tommy was a lot of things, but an idiot he was not, and if Tommy said that this work was important, and he himself had a chance to help- he would do it. For Tommy, and for himself.

TOMMY

It was complicated. Genetically, they were practically identical, but in life they shared very different world views. Tommy had been studious since the beginning, whilst Jake had been content to simply run around. Yes, they were both curious souls, but had very different approaches. Jake had to touch, he couldn't not touch, which Tommy could tell you had them spending hours in emergency rooms, if there was anything Jake hadn't seen before it'd be in his hands within minutes. Tommy took a safer approach; he read about everything. He learned everything he could about the universe from the wide array of books available at the city library.

Tommy had a difficult time during high school. For reasons that he didn't wish to get into, nobody seemed to wish to actually learn during their time at school. It all seemed to be quite hypocritical, when the school's representatives only cared for the sports. The whole idea behind school was to get an education, still- he did not discriminate in his lessons. Tommy did well in all of his classes, including gym. In fact, if it weren't for his wish not to impose on the few areas his brother really excelled at, he may have chosen different classes in his final year, not that he would ever let Jake find out. After high school, Tommy became one of the lucky students who was accepted into Stanford University. He studied the language of the Na'vi, the indigenous people who inhabited Pandora, to suppliment his biochemistry and botany classes. Everything he did was a step towards Pandora and the internships the RDA were offering under Dr. Grace Augustine. In fact he had just received his acceptance into the avatar programme when he received the call.

His brother had been shot in the back just days before his tour was due to end. He politely retracted his application due to his family circumstances, before catching the next available flight back home. Jake was a mess. He remembered his brother as always standing tall, never staying still- he had to be in constant motion. Seeing him unmoving and seemingly small in his hospital bed was terrible. However, Tommy knew his brother's mind. He only dwelled on what was for a moment before his rational mind reminded him how nothing good could come of that, and that if he were to let it affect him too much, Jake would be able to tell. So rather than sit vigil at his brother's side, holding his hand and speaking reassuring words, he worked at his side. When Jake came to, his eyes seemed duller, but he interacted with Tommy as he always had.

Tommy wouldn't be himself if he didn't thoroughly research all of the options available to Jake. He laid everything on the table. Though it pained him to realise that most of the treatments were far too expensive for either of them to conceive, once Jake could see for himself what was within his grasp, he could move forwards. After Tommy was suitably convinced his brother would be okay, he once again applied for an internship to find they were fully aware of his circumstances, and had held a spot for him. He met with a fellow scientist, Norm Spellman, and they begun their work. Unfortunately, a week before they were due to ship out, Tommy went shopping and never got to experience Pandora up close... perhaps it was written in the stars, after all- Jake was the 'hands on' twin.

END

okay, by no means perfect, but I hope my ideas came through anyway- please let me know what you think! :)


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